Guard Duty
by DemoniaZorra
Summary: Hikaru decides it's no longer a good idea to volunteer for late night guard duty when the next day he finds his team in chaos without him. Fighting robots seems easy compared to acting like the guardian of the group. An Exo-Force fanfiction.


Hikaru let out a yawn, stretching from his position in one of the guard towers that looked across the mountain from the Golden City. Apart from the battle machines standing by the main gate, many guard posts were situated along the enclosing wall of the city for protection, and were active twenty four hours a day. Of course, this meant that a handful of unlucky people had to give up their sleep to ensure the safety of the residents at night.

However, Hikaru didn't mind taking the night shift. It gave him a quiet time to reflect on his work, deciding if certain plans could be tweaked, or his training intensified. Although he enjoyed being on his own, there was one other reward for staying up and observing the sky for enemies. More than anything else Hikaru loved the view.

Sentai Fortress had been heavily guarded and built in a clearing halfway down the mountain with countless bridges blocking it from the sky. In a pleasant contrast, the Golden City was almost at the peak and relied on its more advanced technology for protection during the day, meaning there was little difference between it and other bustling villages in Japan.

It was this openness that allowed Hikaru to watch the sunrise that morning. Soft amber light spread out across the horizon, rippling together with the fading blue that had once made up the night sky. It cast a warm glow over the city, as the golden walls were illuminated with the rays of the sun, and even the surrounding trees seemed like they had been dipped in the same precious metal. It was much more beautiful than the night, when the moon spilled a pale silver light over the mountain, and the walls of the city suddenly felt too cold to Hikaru, reminding him of the side the robots had claimed.

Hikaru was pulled from his thoughts as another pilot walked up to him to take over his duty. Giving a small smile of thanks, the blue haired teen made his way to a ladder that would lead him to the ground.

He headed back to his dorm through the empty city, watching the sun rise higher into the marbled sky that was slowly turning pastel blue. There was no one walking down the streets, no training going on in the main square, no noise other than the wind gently rustling the trees and the occasional song of a bird. Hikaru wished the war would end soon so every morning would be this tranquil, and he could carry on living like a normal person his age should. Although, even when this was all over, his life would never be the same as before; no amount of peace would bring his family and home back. He shook his head, trying to ignore the thoughts that were threatening to ruin his good mood.

Arriving back at his dorm, he greeted a few pilots who had reluctantly woken up to start their daily routine, sighing with relief when he finally made it to his bed.

An ear-splitting sound jolted Hikaru awake and as he looked over at his clock, he realised he had slept through the majority of the day instead of the few hours he had intended. It sounded like the alarm for a robot attack had been triggered, and still half asleep, he rolled out of bed onto the floor with a loud thud in his attempt to get up and ready. Just as he fumbled to clip on his body armour for the third time, the alarm stopped and silence returned to the city.

As Hikaru's mind cleared, it dawned on him that the alarm he had heard wasn't the warning siren as he had thought, but rather a slightly softer noise that signified the safe end of a battle. He bit his lip, wondering what sort of trouble he would get into for sleeping through an attack. He was normally the first of the team to stress the importance of punctuality and a balanced schedule, but here he was, thrown out of his routine by one evening on guard duty. He would never hear the end of this, especially from Takeshi who was always scolded for his inability to sit still long enough to complete a whole guard shift.

He ran towards the front of the city where the battle machines were kept in large warehouses that were used as hangers, weaving through the rest of the pilots that were wandering through the streets. He hoped that the battle hadn't gone too badly, and definitely hoped that Sensei hadn't noticed his absence.

Even before he reached the warehouses, he could hear the commotion that was coming from one of them, cursing as he recognised who was arguing.

"Excuse me, but who has been put in charge of the Exo-Force operation should something happen to Sensei?" A female voice pierced the air.

"That's exactly my point!" A much deeper, male voice shouted back, "In charge of the _Exo-Force_, not in charge of the individual battles. I had everything under control; I didn't need someone less experienced interrupting me!"

"I can't believe you're such an ass! Oh no, wait a minute, you've literally been like this from _day one_!" replied the girl, her voice becoming shrill at the end of her sentence.

"At least I've been a pilot from day one." Hikaru could imagine the sneer that accompanied that response, and rounded the corner just in time to see what was going on.

Hitomi let out a shriek as she lunged at Takeshi, but seconds before her fist made contact with his head, Ha-Ya-To grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her away with a worried expression on his face. Hitomi continued to scream as she writhed in Ha-Ya-To's arms, trying to break free and continue her fight. Takeshi only laughed loudly, edging towards Hitomi so her kicks just fell short of him but close enough that she struggled even more to reach him.

"I'm glad the potential leader of the Exo-Force needs to be held back like an immature child. It really fills me with confidence." Takeshi crossed his arms, curling his lip at Hitomi as she had changed tactic, and was now trying to prise Ha-Ya-To's arms away from her.

"You're talking to _me _about maturity?" she yelled back, "Someone needs to teach you about maturity, you piece of-"

"Hikaru!" Ha-Ya-To shouted gleefully, finally looking over to where the young pilot was standing as he tried to avoid being hit in the face by Hitomi's elbows. She and Takeshi glanced quickly to where Ha-Ya-To was looking, both of them falling silent and staring at their leader. Ha-Ya-To finally let go of Hitomi, but she didn't even seem to notice.

"Thank God" Ryo groaned, emerging from the corner of the hangar and rubbing his temples. He was holding a small wrench in one hand and his gloves were already covered in the oil of the battle machines, although he didn't seem to care. Hikaru glanced back into the hangar, noticing the smouldering armour of the Blade Titan and the Blazing Falcon, various parts of each machine scattered on the floor where the repair work had begun. He could imagine Ryo calling the two here to complain about the damage they had done, all while tinkering away with the battle machines, not noticing until it was too late that bringing them together at that time was about as smart as sending Ha-Ya-To on a stealth mission.

"Please, get these two out of here, they're behaving like infants."

"No I'm not!" Takeshi and Hitomi replied simultaneously.

Ryo only looked at Hikaru with pleading eyes, as if that had just proven his point.

"What exactly is going on here?" Hikaru asked cautiously. "And I'm not asking you two." He added, as he noticed Takeshi and Hitomi open their mouths in order to start blaming one another.

"Ryo tried to wake you up when the robots came but you wouldn't move. I couldn't wake you up either." Ha-Ya-To said, "So I suggested we went without you because it didn't seem too bad. It was fine, by the way. We're still young; we can't be expected to be perfect soldiers all the time." He smiled kindly at Hikaru, who still felt his face heat up with embarrassment.

A wave of guilt washed over him; not only had his roommate not been able to wake him during such a crucial moment, but neither had the energetic teen who had a city-wide reputation of talking so loudly that it could be heard a few buildings away. While Hikaru agreed with Ha-Ya-To's statement, they weren't in the position to have bad days no matter what their age was. What if it hadn't been such a small attack?

Hikaru cleared his throat, turning away from the giggling Ha-Ya-To. "And then what happened. This can't have started on the battlefield right? That would have been extremely unprofessional." He noticed the other two pilots look away sheepishly when his gaze fell on them.

"You know how they can get." Ryo sighed when the accused members didn't speak. "One trivial disagreement and it escalates into their own little war."

"We were fighting over who should command the air force without you there." Hitomi said in a meek voice. Hikaru knew she hated disappointing the team after fighting so hard with her grandfather to let her be a part of it in the first place. She constantly worried that one wrong move would send her back to the tech's workshop permanently while the other four boys were untouchable, as the Golden City's heroic team that could do nothing wrong.

Time and time again Hikaru had to calm her down and make her realise that they were all equal, and being a little more stubborn than normal wasn't enough for Sensei to kick her off of the team, especially when Takeshi had to be the most stubborn person any of them had ever met. It was this fact that made it so hard for Takeshi and Hitomi to get along when so many of their ideas conflicted. It was a miracle to see them having a regular conversation; widely believed impossible until Ha-Ya-To acquired photographic evidence.

Hikaru sighed. "Technically it should be Takeshi as he's in charge after me. But", he continued as Takeshi started to give a smug grin to Hitomi, "as he doesn't pilot a flying battle machine, it wouldn't have hurt to listen to you. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't know everything about fighting. Are you done trying to kill one another then?"

The two pilots nodded reluctantly. "Good, now you can apologise."

"I can't believe you're telling me what to do. It was all her fault." Takeshi growled out, pointing accusingly at Hitomi.

"Did you not just hear what he said? It wasn't just me that was wrong, which I can admit to because unlike you I'm not a petty child!"

Just as Takeshi attempted to snap back at her, Hikaru shouted "Enough!" and stepped in between the pilots. "I wouldn't care if you were the Emperor of Japan; at this moment there is no authority higher than me, and you're going to do as I say right now. Apologise and make sure something like this doesn't happen again. Do you think the other pilots will continue to listen to you if you act like this all the time?"

The five of them stood in silence for a few seconds, tension sparking between Takeshi and Hitomi. Hikaru was sure they weren't going to listen to him when Hitomi began to speak.

"You're not a completely terrible leader in battle. You're not great either, so there's no need to get so annoyed when people suggest other ideas." She crossed her arms, facing the taller pilot.

Takeshi let out a long sigh. "You're not a bad pilot, I guess. And sometimes you might have good ideas that I should listen to. That was awkward, are we done yet?" the last part was directed at Hikaru, who stood there with one eyebrow raised.

"Well it wasn't really as heartfelt as I thought it would be."

Ryo rolled his eyes. "I'll give you credit for making them stop, but this is Hitomi and Takeshi you're talking about. What more were you expecting?"

A mischievous smile spread across Hitomi's face. "Ryo, there's no need to be so rude to our dear little friend like that. He really does try to act normal, and it's not his fault that he's just a heartless shell of a human being."

"It's kinda hard when Sensei's role model has a soul as black as her hair, and would hand over the entire human race if the robots set her free in Shibuya with enough money." Takeshi replied, glaring at Hitomi although he was trying not to smile.

"You've got to be kidding me." Hikaru groaned, hanging his head in defeat.

Ryo stepped over to Hikaru and placed a hand on his shoulder to show that he too felt the pain of having such difficult teammates. Ha-Ya-To simply tried to make Ryo and Hikaru bet on who could make up the best insult as Hitomi and Takeshi's argument soon turned to petty remarks, and they slowly began to laugh with one another.

Hikaru eventually couldn't help but laugh with them, and he tried to remember the last time he had enjoyed being with his friends like this. In this moment they weren't pilots or soldiers, and they weren't in the middle of a war. They were a group of teenagers that often fought because of their flaws, but nothing could stop them from being such good friends that it was almost like a new family to Hikaru. He thought that even after the war there was no way he could ever go back to living a peaceful life if these four had anything to do with it.

**[A/N – Originally this was a descriptive writing practice about the sun, this wasn't even meant to be Exo-Force related/be longer than a few sentences. I'm too deep in this fandom, oh dear. Not only that, but it went from Hikaru's nice view (which is never mentioned again) to Takeshi and Hitomi fighting… I'm clearly a professional. **

**There are friendships where you insult one another but in a good natured way, right? If not, my friends and I are just terrible people. **

**I know the Exo-Force wiki says Takeshi is the unofficial leader, but I imagine he's the leader of his team and the grounded battle machines, while Hikaru is the leader of the flying ones. But Hikaru totally steps in to control the rest of his (cough*and Ryo's children*cough) teammates sometimes. **

**Feel free to give criticisms, I'm here to improve.**

**EDIT – I changed a few things so Hikaru is the leader of the main team instead of Takeshi. The more websites I came across, and the review, made me think it was a lot more sensible for this change, which will continue through my fics. ] **


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